SAN LEANDRO, CA — In the latest sign of full-scale change at IBM, chief marketing officer Michael Mendenhall has left the tech giant for a new gig with TriNet.

Mendenhall joined TriNet, which provides HR services for small and mid-size companies, as a senior VP, chief marketing officer and chief communications officer. He is leading all the company’s marketing and communications efforts including messaging, branding, advertising, product marketing and corporate communications.

Mendenhall spent less than a year with IBM, having joined the company as CMO, as well as CCO for IBM Watson and IBM Cloud, in July.

His departure comes amidst a radical overhaul of IBM’s PR and communications operations occurring under the leadership of Ray Day, the former Ford comms leader who joined IBM as CCO in December when longtime comms head Jon Iwata retired.

Although the current search for new agency partners is the centerpiece of Day’s revamp, there has been considerable in-house communications staff turnover, some of which precedes Day's arrival.

Significant departures include VP David Yaun, while last year CCO Andy Whitehouse and VPs Jeff DeMarrais and Paul Bergevin left. Day, meanwhile, has made several new appointments to try and change the department's focus and priorities.

IBM representatives did not respond to request for comment regarding whether the CMO role for Watson and Cloud will be filled.